A holistic approach to sustainable energy development at regional level: the RENERGY self-assessment methodology

The energy challenge is a complex issue that EU is facing. A sustainable, safe and competitive energy supply and climate change mitigation are nowadays key priorities of EU energy policy and a need for each EU Member State. The strategy "Europe 2020", which outlines the EU's actions to address climate change and the energy requirements, set three fundamental quantitative targets to be achieved by 2020: cut 20% greenhouse gas emissions, generate 20% energy from renewable sources and cut 20% energy consumption. In this framework energy consumption has a major role because; as well known, reducing the consumption is a privileged tool to achieve a steady reduction of CO2 emissions. The EU policy is therefore aimed at defining a clear strategy that integrates the main dimensions (energy, environment, economy and society) for a sustainable development. The long term vision is to transform the EU into a competitive low carbon economy and to improve the standard of living of current and future generations. A decisive step to translate the political orientation of the EU into concrete actions is to promote energy sustainability at the local scale as a result of the decentralized nature of energy efficiency and renewable applications with important consequences also in terms of local employment. In this context, sustainable urban development provides a response to the challenge of sustainability, where efforts are made to promote the production and use of "green energy" and consequently to minimize the environmental impact of human activities. Sustainable energy development at the regional level is a multiple and complex activity, incorporating various stakeholders and different measures. The practice shows that the transposition of legal requirements and statement of the European, national and regional strategies is often not successful in the operating implementation of the policy objectives also due to multiple and different point of views of stakeholder groups. Therefore the adoption of a holistic approach need allows considering all the fundamental aspects to be evaluated and managed at the regional level in the achievement of the policy objectives as well as to exploit the synergies and feedback among the different components. Three main thematic pillars, policy, energy market and community involvement, have been identified as crucial to pursue a sustainable energy development at the regional scale in order to implement effective and feasible measures in local communities. In this framework, the initial diagnosis of regional energy systems is an essential step to set up customized sustainable strategies. In the framework of the INTERREG IVC RENERGY project a structured methodology for the initial self-assessment analysis of the communities (SAA methodology) was defined and applied to the analysis of the partners' communities (located in ten different European regions: Lithuania, Denmark, Italy, Portugal, United Kingdom, Germany, Austria, Hungary and Romania) in order to outline the status of the local energy systems and provide the reference information for the subsequent planning actions. The holistic approach of SAA methodology is focused on the interrelationships among the above mentioned thematic pillars being aimed at characterising the energy systems in terms of policy background, energy uses and infrastructures as well as the market behaviour and the community attitude for sustainable development. The holistic approach of RENERGY Self-Assessment Analysis (SAA) methodology is based on the integration of qualitative and quantitative methodologies for data collection and analysis: the ALEP - Advanced Local Energy Planning, the SWOT, to evaluate the Strengths, Weaknesses, Opportunities, and Threats, and the PEST analysis (Political, Economic, Social and Technological) to describe the macro-economic framework. Different aspects relevant for renewable energy sources (RES) and energy efficiency (EE) exploitation in the partners' regions were examined by means of extensive checklists and questionnaires that focused on main issues related to the three considered dimensions. The analytical approach adopted is based on a unique system of indicators specifically developed in the framework of the RENERGY project and allows an efficient evaluation and comparison of European country regions with very different features. The methodology has a general application for different purposes: to characterise the background on which sustainable development actions and plans are developed, to establish medium - long term energy and climate feasible targets, to assess the progress towards sustainable development in communities, to compare different regions on the basis of a common system of indicators. The methodological framework is also useful to set up a structured database to be shared and updated by different actors that could allow for a periodical monitoring of energy system performances and community behaviour. In that sense it represents a milestone for the implementation of sustainable energy measures and policies that take into account all the main components (energy systems configuration, policy making, Market uptake, stakeholders' perspective, community attitude). The application of the methodology to different case studies will be extensively described in the full length paper, emphasising through the various phases the main aspects to be addressed in the evaluation of the regional energy system and the definition of planning objectives as well as the barriers that could hamper the implementation of sustainable strategies.